The Eagle of the Ninth is an upcoming sword and sandal movie directed by Kevin Macdonald and starring Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell, Mark Strong, and Denis O’Hare. The film is set to be released in fall 2010. Focus Features released the first pictures of Eagle of the Ninth, take a look below:

Plot: “In 140 AD, twenty years after the unexplained disappearance of the entire Ninth Legion in the mountains of Scotland, young centurion Marcus Aquila (Channing Tatum) arrives from Rome to solve the mystery and restore the reputation of his father, the commander of the Ninth. Accompanied only by his British slave Esca (Jamie Bell), Marcus sets out across Hadrian’s Wall into the uncharted highlands of Caledonia – to confront its savage tribes, make peace with his father’s memory, and retrieve the lost legion’s golden emblem, the Eagle of the Ninth.”

Hollywood is like obsessed with The Ninth Legion… The Eagle of the Ninth is just one more movie on this theme! And it will have to compete with Neil Marshall’s Centurion which is likely to be released sometime in the second half of 2010! But the Eagle of the Ninth movie can boast Channing Tattum in its cast. Well, I guess I’ll watch both movies anyway. :)

The Ninth Hispania Legion probably did not get wiped out until its last recorded presence on the Roman Eastern Frontier, years after it served in Britain. But so what. This is fiction, a story, myth making.

Yes kenzie the 9th Legion was based in York (Eburacum) and is known to have been disbanded. I read the book ( by Rosemary Sutcliffe) in the 50s as a young boy. I’m glad they are finally releasing a film – let’s hope they stick to the book for once.